Monk
Dotted across the landscape are monasteries—small, walled cloisters inhabited by monks who pursue personal perfection through action as well as contemplation. They train themselves to be versatile combatants skilled at fighting without weapons or armor. The inhabitants of monasteries headed by good masters serve as protectors of the people. Ready for battle even when barefoot and dressed in peasant clothes, monks can travel unnoticed among the populace, catching bandits, warlords, and corrupt nobles unawares. In contrast, the residents of monasteries headed by evil masters rule the surrounding lands through fear, as an evil warlord and his entourage might. Evil monks make ideal spies, infiltrators, and mercenaries. The individual monk is unlikely to care passionately about championing commoners or amassing wealth. They care primarily for the perfection of their art and, thereby, their personal perfection. Their goal is to achieve a state that is beyond the mortal realm. Class Qualities Alignment: Lawful or Spiritual, tend Lawful Mad. A monk’s alignment must be within one step of their deity’s (that is, it may be one step away on either the ethical axis or the moral axis, but not both). Speed: 5 ft Starting Gold: 3000 gp Starting Health: 12 (Con + 2 per level) Spell Counters: Wis + 3 per level, x4 at first level Saving Throws: For 2, Wil 3 Military: Yes, most monks hail from Espíritu Guilds: No Spells: Instinctive magic, tend towards Witchcraft/Wizardry Achievements: Spellcasting, Magic Attacks, Will Saves, Wisdom-based Skills, Using Aspects, and Charisma-based Skills grant x3 XP. Receiving Damage, Fortitude Saves, Concentration, Melee Attacks, Combat Maneuvers, Damage Resistance, and Strength-based Skills grant x2 XP. Class Skills (Int modifier per level, ×4 at 1st level): Balance, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Knowledge (arcana, art, behavior, guilds, religion, science, tactics), Listen, Move Silently, Perform, Profession, Sense Motive, Spot, Swim, Tumble. Domains and Class Skills Animal Domain — Knowledge (nature) Plant Domain — Knowledge (nature) Knowledge Domain — Knowledge (all skills, taken individually) Travel Domain — Navigate, Survival Trickery Domain — Bluff, Disguise, Gamble, Hide, Knowledge (tactics) Class Features Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Monks are proficient with all simple swords, staves, gauntlets, claws, and wands. They are proficient with light and heavy armor and light shields. Every deity has a favored weapon (see above), and their monks consider it a point of pride to wield that weapon. A monk who chooses the War domain receives the Weapon Focus feat related to that weapon as a bonus feat. They also receive the appropriate Martial Weapon Proficiency feat as a bonus feat, if the weapon falls into that category. Aura (Ex): A monk of a spiritual, mad, chaotic, evil, good, or lawful deity has a particularly powerful aura corresponding to the deity’s alignment. Monks who don’t worship a specific deity but choose the Spiritual, Mad, Chaotic, Evil, Good, or Lawful domain have a similarly powerful aura of the corresponding alignment. Deity, Domains, and Domain Spells: A monk's deity is based upon their nationality. Most of the deities are listed on the above table. The monk’s deity influences their alignment, what magic they can perform, their values, and how others see them. When you have chosen an alignment for your monk, choose two domains from among those given on the above table for the deity. While the monks of a particular religion are united in their reverence for their deity, each monk emphasizes different aspects of the deity’s interests. You can select an alignment domain (Spirituality, Madness, Evil, Good, or Law) for your monk only if their alignment matches that domain. Each domain gives your monk access to a domain spell at each spell level they can cast, from 1st on up, as well as a granted power. Your monk gets the granted powers of both the domains selected. With access to two domain spells at a given spell level, a monk prepares one or the other each day in their domain spell slot. If a domain spell is not on the Divine spell list, a monk can prepare it only in their domain spell slot. AC Bonus (Ex): A monk is highly trained at resisting blows, and they have a sixth sense that lets them endure even unanticipated attacks. When unarmored and unencumbered, the monk adds their Wisdom bonus (if any) to their AC. In addition, a monk gains a +1 bonus to AC at 5th level. This bonus increases by 1 for every five monk levels thereafter (+2 at 10th, +3 at 15th, and +4 at 20th level). These bonuses to AC apply even against touch attacks or when the monk is flat-footed. They lose these bonuses when they are immobilized or helpless, when they wear any armor, or when they carry a shield. Flurry of Blows (Ex): When unarmored, a monk may strike with a flurry of blows at the expense of accuracy. When doing so, they may make one extra attack in a round at their highest base attack bonus, but this attack takes a –2 penalty, as does each other attack made that round. The resulting modified base attack bonuses are shown in the Flurry of Blows Attack Bonus column on Table: The Monk. This penalty applies for 1 round, so it also affects attacks of opportunity the monk might make before their next action. When a monk reaches 5th level, the penalty lessens to –1, and at 9th level it disappears. A monk must use a full attack action to strike with a flurry of blows. When using flurry of blows, a monk may attack with unarmed strikes and monk weapons interchangeably as desired. The monk can’t use any weapon other than a monk weapon as part of a flurry of blows. When a monk reaches 11th level, their flurry of blows ability improves. In addition to the standard single extra attack they get from flurry of blows, they get a second extra attack at their full base attack bonus. Unarmed Strike: Monks are highly trained in fighting unarmed, giving them considerable advantages when doing so. At 1st level, a monk gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat. You are considered to be armed even when unarmed—that is, you do not provoke attacks of opportunity from armed opponents when you attack them while unarmed. However, you still get an attack of opportunity against any opponent who makes an unarmed attack on you. A monk’s attacks may be with either fist interchangeably or even from elbows, knees, and feet. This means that a monk may even make unarmed strikes with their hands full. There is no such thing as an off-hand attack for a monk striking unarmed. A monk may thus apply their full Strength bonus on damage rolls for all their unarmed strikes. Usually a monk’s unarmed strikes deal lethal damage, but they can choose to deal nonlethal damage instead with no penalty on their attack roll. They have the same choice to deal lethal or nonlethal damage while grappling. A monk also deals more damage with their unarmed strikes than a normal person would, as shown on Table: The Monk. The unarmed damage on the above table is for Medium monks. A Small monk deals less damage than the amount given there with their unarmed attacks, while a Large monk deals more damage; see Table: Small or Large Monk Unarmed Damage. Bonus Feat: At 1st level, a monk may select either Improved Grapple or Stunning Fist as a bonus feat. At 2nd level, they may select either Combat Reflexes or Deflect Arrows as a bonus feat. At 6th level, they may select either Improved Disarm or Improved Trip as a bonus feat. A monk need not have any of the prerequisites normally required for these feats to select them. Evasion (Ex): At 2nd level and higher, a monk can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility. If they fail a Reflex saving throw against an attack, they instead can roll another saving throw. A helpless monk (such as one who is unconscious or paralysed) does not gain the benefit of evasion. Fast Movement (Ex): At 3rd level, a monk gains an enhancement bonus to their speed, as shown on Table: The Monk. A monk in armor (even light armor) or encumbered loses this extra speed. Still Mind (Ex): A monk of 3rd level or higher gains a +2 bonus on saving throws against spells and effects from the school of enchantment, since their meditation and training improve their resistance to mind-affecting attacks. Ki Strike (Su): At 4th level, a monk’s unarmed attacks are empowered with ki. Their unarmed attacks are treated as magic weapons for the purpose of dealing damage to creatures with damage reduction. Ki strike improves with the character’s monk level. At 10th level, their unarmed attacks are also treated as lawful weapons for the purpose of dealing damage to creatures with damage reduction. At 16th level, their unarmed attacks are treated as adamantine weapons for the purpose of dealing damage to creatures with damage reduction and bypassing hardness. Slow Fall (Ex): At 4th level or higher, a monk within arm’s reach of a wall can use it to slow their descent. When first using this ability, they take damage as if the fall were 20 feet shorter than it actually is. The monk’s ability to slow their fall (that is, to reduce the effective distance of the fall when next to a wall) improves with their monk level until at 20th level they can use a nearby wall to slow their descent and fall any distance without harm. See the Special column on Table: The Monk for details. Purity of Body (Ex): At 5th level, a monk gains control over their body’s immune system. They gain immunity to all diseases except for supernatural and magical diseases (such as mummy rot and lycanthropy). Wholeness of Body (Su): At 7th level or higher, a monk can heal their own wounds. They can heal a number of hit points of damage equal to twice their current monk level each day, and they can spread this healing out among several uses. Improved Evasion (Ex): At 9th level, a monk’s evasion ability improves. This ability works like evasion, except that while the monk still takes no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks such as a dragon’s breath weapon or a fireball, henceforth they henceforth take only half damage on a failed save. A helpless monk (such as one who is unconscious or paralysed) does not gain the benefit of improved evasion. Diamond Body (Su): At 11th level, a monk is in such firm control of their own metabolism that they gain immunity to poisons of all kinds. Abundant Step (Su): At 12th level or higher, a monk can slip magically between spaces, as if using the spell dimension door, once per day. Their caster level for this effect is one-half their monk level (rounded down). Diamond Soul (Ex): At 13th level, a monk gains spell resistance equal to their current monk level + 10. In order to affect the monk with a spell, a spellcaster must get a result on a caster level check that equals or exceeds the monk’s spell resistance. Quivering Palm (Su): Starting at 15th level, a monk can set up vibrations within the body of another creature that can thereafter be fatal if the monk so desires. They can use this quivering palm attack once a week, and they must announce their intent before making their attack roll. Constructs, oozes, plants, undead, incorporeal creatures, and creatures immune to critical hits cannot be affected. Otherwise, if the monk strikes successfully and the target takes damage from the blow, the quivering palm attack succeeds. Thereafter the monk can try to slay the victim at any later time, as long as the attempt is made within a number of days equal to their monk level. To make such an attempt, the monk merely wills the target to die (a free action), and unless the target makes a Fortitude saving throw (DC 10 + 1/2 the monk’s level + the monk’s Wis modifier), it dies. If the saving throw is successful, the target is no longer in danger from that particular quivering palm attack, but it may still be affected by another one at a later time. Timeless Body (Ex): Upon attaining 17th level, a monk no longer takes penalties to their ability scores for aging and cannot be magically aged. Any such penalties that they have already taken, however, remain in place. Bonuses still accrue, and the monk still dies of old age when their time is up. Tongue of the Sun and Moon (Ex): A monk of 17th level or higher can speak with any living creature. Empty Body (Su): At 19th level, a monk gains the ability to assume an ethereal state for 1 round per monk level per day, as though using the spell etherealness. They may go ethereal on a number of different occasions during any single day, as long as the total number of rounds spent in an ethereal state does not exceed their monk level. Perfect Self: At 20th level, a monk has tuned their body with skill and magical abilities to the point that they become a magical creature. They are forevermore treated as an outsider (an extraplanar creature) rather than as a humanoid for the purpose of spells and magical effects. Additionally, the monk gains damage reduction 10/magic, which allows them to ignore the first 10 points of damage from any attack made by a nonmagical weapon or by any natural attack made by a creature that doesn’t have similar damage reduction. Unlike other outsiders, the monk can still be brought back from the dead as if they were a member of their previous creature type. Ex-Monks A monk who becomes nonlawful or nonspiritual cannot gain new levels as a monk but retains all monk abilities. A monk who grossly violates the code of conduct required by their god (generally by acting in ways opposed to the god’s alignment or purposes) loses all spells and domain features. They cannot thereafter gain levels as a monk of that god until they atone. Like a member of any other class, a monk may be a multiclass character, but multiclass monks face a special restriction. A monk who gains a new class or (if already multiclass) raises another class by a level may never again raise their monk level, though they retain all their monk abilities. Category:D&D 3 Category:Classes Category:Military Class Category:Spellcasting Class Category:Base Class Category:Instinctive Spellcaster